WOMEN’S DAYS FOR CULTURE OF PEACE
History of Women’s Suffrage
Women did not receive the vote. They fought for it — for decades, across every continent. This is the story of how democracy became, slowly, a right for all.
Women’s March Amsterdam, Museumplein, 21 January 2017 – © Red Yellow Blue (RYB)
WCP
Global Initiatives
Suffrage means the right to vote. For most of human history, women did not have it. They were excluded from democracy by law — not by accident.
The struggle to change that began in earnest in the 19th century. It was led by ordinary women — and some extraordinary ones. It faced violence, imprisonment, and ridicule. It won, country by country, over more than 120 years.
Today, women can vote in every UN member state. But the right to vote is only the beginning of political equality. In many countries, women still face barriers to standing as candidates, holding office, and shaping policy.
This page tells that story. It also explains why suffrage history anchors the Women’s Days for Culture of Peace initiative — one dedicated national day per country, rooted in the date women there first won the vote.
1869
Wyoming — first jurisdiction to grant women’s suffrage
1893
New Zealand — first sovereign country
1971
Switzerland — last major Western democracy
2015
Saudi Arabia — most recent expansion of voting rights
COUNTRY SPOTLIGHTS
Four Pioneering Nations
These four countries led the world. Each tells a different story about how suffrage was won — and what it cost.
NZ
New Zealand
SEPTEMBER 19, 1893
Kate Sheppard organised the largest petition in New Zealand history. Nearly one in four adult women signed it. On September 19, 1893, Governor Lord Glasgow signed the Electoral Act. New Zealand women voted for the first time in November that year. Kate Sheppard appears on the $10 note — one of the few non-royal women on currency worldwide.
FI
Finland
JUNE 1, 1906
Finland was the first European country to grant women full political rights. Women could vote and stand as candidates. In the 1907 elections, 19 women entered parliament — a world record at the time. Finland’s strong tradition of gender equality traces back to this moment.
US
United States
AUGUST 26, 1920
From Seneca Falls in 1848 to the 19th Amendment in 1920 — 72 years. Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, and Carrie Chapman Catt all shaped the campaign. The amendment passed by just two votes in the Tennessee legislature — the deciding state. Black women faced additional legal barriers until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
CH
Switzerland
FEBRUARY 7, 1971
Switzerland held repeated referendums on women’s suffrage — voted down by men in 1959 and again in the 1960s. Women finally won the right in 1971. The canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden resisted until the Swiss Supreme Court forced compliance in 1990. Switzerland now consistently ranks among the world’s top nations for gender equality.
KEY FIGURES
The Women Who Changed History
Suffrage was won by people — not inevitably, not automatically. These names deserve to be remembered.
Kate Sheppard (1847–1934) — New Zealand. Organised the petition that secured the world’s first national women’s suffrage. A pioneer of non-violent mass campaigning.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) — United States. Drafted the Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls. Co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association.
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) — United Kingdom. Founded the Women’s Social and Political Union. Used direct action — marches, hunger strikes, property damage — to force the issue. “Deeds, not words.”
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) — United States. Escaped slavery. Fought for both abolition and women’s rights. Her 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech connected race and gender equality inseparably.
Minna Canth (1844–1897) — Finland. Playwright and activist who laid the cultural groundwork for Finnish women’s political rights. Her work demonstrated that culture precedes legislation.
“There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.”
— Susan B. Anthony, 1897
CULTURE WOMEN’S DAYS — THE CALENDAR
Every country has a date. A moment in history when women won the right to vote — or are still waiting for full political equality to follow.
The Culture Women’s Days Calendar brings together all 193 UN member states in one place. Each row shows the national Women’s Day, the country, and the year suffrage was achieved. You can sort by date, by country name, or search directly for any nation.
These are not symbolic dates chosen at random. Each one is anchored in history — in the petitions, marches, hunger strikes, and legislative battles that made democracy real for half the world’s population.
Explore the calendar. Find your country. See where your national Women’s Day falls in the global picture.
LOOKING FORWARD
The Vote Was the Beginning
Women won the right to vote over 120 years of struggle. Yet the vote alone does not create equality. Today, women hold fewer than 27% of parliamentary seats worldwide. The World Economic Forum projects full gender parity will take another 131 years.
The suffrage movement understood something important. Change does not come from waiting. It comes from organising, from visibility, from culture shifting before laws follow. Minna Canth in Finland, Kate Sheppard in New Zealand, Emmeline Pankhurst in Britain — they all used public life, storytelling, and community to prepare the ground.
Women’s Days for Culture of Peace continues that tradition. One day per country. One anchor in history. One platform for action. Together, 193 days build the year-round momentum that suffragists always knew was needed.
The history of suffrage is not over. It is still being written — in parliaments with too few women, in communities where voices go unheard, and in every country that uses its Women’s Day to demand something better.